Wastewater-based epidemiology as an ally in the fight against the COVID-19: a brief review

Abstract

Several researchers have detected the viral genome of SARS-CoV-2 in the stools of people (symptomatic or not) diagnosed with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). In domestic wastewater, this concentration can be between 19 and 5.5 x 106 viral genomes per liter of wastewater. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) starts from the premise that it is possible to estimate the number of people infected by the new coronavirus within a given population group, by analyzing the amount of viral genome present in the wastewater produced by these people. This paper presents the procedures to estimate the number of COVID-19 cases from raw wastewater samples, discusses the main aspects that involve the WBE assay and presents a discussion based on the case studies applied to COVID-19 in some countries. Finally, there is a final discussion about the current situation and the main challenges for WBE to be applied efficiently for COVID-19, as an alternative to massive human testing, especially for developing and underdeveloped countries.